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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://septemberai.mintlify.app/llms.txt

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The Engine deploys as a single process backed by a single SQLite database. It’s small, has few moving parts, and is easy to run alone. The complexity in production comes from running many of them.

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Topologies

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Single-node (laptop / single user)

One Engine process. One brain file. One LLM provider key. Used for local development and for solo users who run their own Engine. This is what docker compose up engine gives you. See Local development quickstart.

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Hosted, per-user

A control plane upstream (BAP — the public product’s backend) holds user accounts and routes each request to the right Engine. Each Engine instance owns one user’s brain. Engine instances are interchangeable — you can lose one and bring up another against the same brain. They start in seconds.

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Orchestrated (in production)

A separate orchestrator — bap-engine — provisions, health-checks, and manages a fleet of Engine workers. Adds policy, quotas, and lifecycle management on top of the per-user model. See BAP Engine for the full docs; source at bap-engine.

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What you need

For a production deployment, you need:
  • A container runtime that can run the Engine’s image. The image is built from the Engine repo’s Dockerfile.
  • Persistent storage for the brain SQLite file (e.g. an EBS volume, a Kubernetes PVC).
  • LLM provider credentials (one provider for chat, OpenAI for embeddings).
  • An AD_ENCRYPTION_KEY if you’ll use any MCP connectors.
  • A public URL with HTTPS termination upstream of the Engine.
  • An API key (or hash) for the Engine itself.

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What you don’t need

  • A queue, broker, or message bus. The Engine is in-process.
  • A separate database service. SQLite is the only durable store.
  • A Redis or cache layer. The Engine handles its own caching.
  • A separate worker pool. The Learning Centre runs in-process on a schedule.

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Hardening checklist

Before any production deploy:
  • ENGINE_KEY_HASH set, plaintext key not in the Engine environment.
  • AD_ENCRYPTION_KEY set if any MCP connectors will be used.
  • HTTPS terminating upstream of the Engine.
  • CORS_ORIGINS restricted to your application domains, not *.
  • ASSET_DIRECTORY_SANDBOXED=true.
  • SUBPROCESS_SCRUB_MODE=strict for production.
  • ENGINE_LOG_LEVEL=INFO (not DEBUG).
  • Brain volume backed up on a schedule.
  • Health probe configured against /health.
  • Log shipping configured.
  • Migrations strategy decided (auto-run on boot vs. gate by ops).

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Where to go next